Quality pros need your wise advice and opinion,

we receive many different types of industrial staples for bedding and automotive, various types of nails, pneumatic application tools are used for the application.

We don't have too many issues with nonconforming incoming quality, thus, inspecting every single lot everytime they come in would be wasteful time, especially if some of the staples and nails never had a nonconformance. Still our manager wants them to be checked all the time. Can we show him a plan of inspection that would cover lot incoming testing, or sampling plan in order to keep good product, while inspecting only when is needed. Skip lot info let me know.

Comments, can you guys send an attachment doc with the test plan?

Quality pros need your wise advice and opinion,

we receive many different types of industrial staples for bedding and automotive, various types of nails, pneumatic application tools are used for the application.

We don't have too many issues with nonconforming incoming quality, thus, inspecting every single lot everytime they come in would be wasteful time, especially if some of the staples and nails never had a nonconformance. Still our manager wants them to be checked all the time. Can we show him a plan of inspection that would cover lot incoming testing, or sampling plan in order to keep good product, while inspecting only when is needed. Skip lot info let me know.

Comments, can you guys send an attachment doc with the test plan?

I don't have any sort of document for you, but I do know that the best way to approach this situation in most cases is by showing the manager the money. If you can determine how much needless incoming inspection costs your company, and how those costs can be reduced or eliminated, you're much more likely to get management's attention. If someone thinks that an inspection process is necessary, the only real way to convince them otherwise is to show them the money flying out the window.

Really good answer. Thanks.
While we are on this topic, what factors would be considered to determine the quality cost to the incoming inspection. Ex hours spent inspecting, salary, doing the setup for the application tools, what is your opinion, what other factors can be included in this type of cost analysis?
thanks,

Really good answer. Thanks.
While we are on this topic, what factors would be considered to determine the quality cost to the incoming inspection. Ex hours spent inspecting, salary, doing the setup for the application tools, what is your opinion, what other factors can be included in this type of cost analysis?
thanks,

It's best--and simplest--to deal with direct costs such as wages/hours, and to include some suggestions for redeploying inspectors (to jobs where they can do some good) rather than just laying people off. The approach should be showing management a good way to save some money, rather than just eliminating what management perceives to be an important function.

I have moved this post to this forum, since it is regarding Skip Lot Inspection... It should get more responses.

There are a couple other methods I have used.
1-If you can't eliminate the incoming inspection then use reduced sampling. I think it is described in the old MIL-STD-105. You inspect 10 consecutive lots at normal sample size-example such as 150 per lot. If all 10 lots are acceptable then you can switch to reduced sample sizes such as 50 or 25 per lot. But if you find any nonconforming samples you then revert back to the original sample size of 150 per lot.
2- Dock to stock. Again if you get 10 consecutive acceptable lots and normal sample size, then put the supplier on "dock to stock". This means the product bypasses incoming inspection and goes directly to production stock.
If non conformances are found during production, then revert to normal sample sizes until another 10 lots are acceptable.

Are these nails, industrial staples etc, "off the shelf", if so I would class them as a "commodity item" possibility widely available, stable manufacturing processes and use by many other companies, therefore inspection would be complete many times and any batch / feedback problems would be passed to the supplier for corrective actions, for these items "skip lot" would be acceptable and "value adding".

I have in the pass used MIL-STD 105 as commented by ralphsuler, a good system, however, the system currently available is BS6001 - I have attached a summary review completed a few years ago in my present company - could help as a start.(QAP are procedures).

I found if you can place your incoming goods into 3 headings - Commodity, Leverage and Process / Product Critical, you can target the level of inspection / supplier monitoring.

Leverage - Suppliers hold a negotiating advantage with your company - therefore the supplier will be monitored through a SQA program

Product Critical - Strategic importance to the functionality of Product
Process Critical - Strategic importance to the build Process of Product e.g. "Bottlenecks" - therefore the Supplier and company must have a common advantage to supply correctly each and every time.

Commodity - Components widely available and priced comparatively low

Leverage and Process / Product Critical goods will need customer / supplier relationships and understanding - in some instances "supplier support programs", however if its a Commodity item, with no failure history, use "skip lot" or "dock to stock" systems

There is no requirement to do incoming inspection per se. The requirement is to have a means to determine whether incoming product meets spec (ISO cl 7.4.3). Incoming inspection is only one way of many to do this.

When I buy a box of nails, if one is bent, I throw it away. If the box has many, I take it back to Home Depot. But I am not going to do a sample process of each incoming box of nails.

For my system that is adequate. For other systems, you might need to do more. But, make sure the end justifies the means. There are many ways to do it.

There are a couple other methods I have used.
1-If you can't eliminate the incoming inspection then use reduced sampling. I think it is described in the old MIL-STD-105. You inspect 10 consecutive lots at normal sample size-example such as 150 per lot. If all 10 lots are acceptable then you can switch to reduced sample sizes such as 50 or 25 per lot. But if you find any nonconforming samples you then revert back to the original sample size of 150 per lot.
2- Dock to stock. Again if you get 10 consecutive acceptable lots and normal sample size, then put the supplier on "dock to stock". This means the product bypasses incoming inspection and goes directly to production stock.
If non conformances are found during production, then revert to normal sample sizes until another 10 lots are acceptable.

I forgot what industries you are involved with, but was wondering how your control plans showed the tranisitioning from an Inspection Frequency to a Dock-To-Stock. Do you just reference a procedure that identifies this transition, if so then how does the Customer know that this inspection transition is part and parcel to the Control Plan?

Thanks,
Doug

The MIL-STD-105D for normal and reduced sampling plan system I referred to in the above post was previously used at a different company supplying government, commercial, and tier 2 automotive products.

Unless your customer specifies otherwise about sampling of incoming products, then I think you could issue a procedure for Incoming Inspection Sampling and define your own sampling plan steps, or reference the MIL-STD-105D if still available.

You could define this in your columns of the Control plan headings of Sample size, Frequency, Control Method, and Reaction Plan.

At the current company we are a tier 1 to Ford, Honda, and Suzuki and not currently using this because we have incoming sampling size plans initially established by our corporate quality staff . The sample sizes are designated by letter codes on the control plans. We change the process and final parts sampling as needed for our systems. Our incoming inspection for the automotive parts is only steel bars, and we inspect and document every lot for dimensional and chemical analysis certification supplied with each shipment.